The British Retail Consortium (BRC) has warned that the European Union (EU) is at risk of reneging on the G20 free trade commitment if it gives the go-ahead to duties on imported candles at a meeting of the EU’s Antidumping Committee today.

The BRC said that the move to impose five-year duties on candles was a vote for protectionism and claimed that it will add more than 50 per cent to the dockside price of candles.

BRC Brussels director Alisdair Gray said: "The ink’s barely dry on the G20’s commitment to name and shame those that erect new trade barriers and the EU already risks becoming the first recipient of this process.

"A vote for imposing duties on candles is a vote for protectionism. It will benefit a handful of European producers at the expense of hard-pressed retailers and retailers."

The BRC called the tariffs a "slap in the face" for consumers and said they would only benefit the handful of continental companies who the consortium claimed have pushed to impose duties to increase their own market share.

Gray called for the duties to be scrapped immediately in the interests of the consumer, the future of European manufacture and free trade. He said: "Candles may not be the major EU trade issue, but this follows a string of other new import duties on products, such as leather footwear and low-energy light bulbs.

"Protectionism can never be a long term answer for European manufacturers. In fact it makes it harder for EU producers to gain access to overseas markets. EU Trade Commission Ashton must take a firmer stand to promote free trade."

By Anthony Clarke

07 Apr 2009

Source: www.springfair.com